A 29-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly cheating a person of Rs 5.5 lakh claiming he was a Trinamool Congress MLA from Baranagar, police said. “Subhojit Roy, a resident of Sodepur in Madhyamgram, was arrested by the detective department on Friday night. He had cheated a person by impersonating the Baranagar MLA,” said Santosh Pandey, DC (detective department) of Bidhanagar Police Commissionerate.

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According to police sources, the complaint against Roy was filed by Lalit Mahoto, resident of Howrah Bally, on September 30. Mahato had alleged that a man had collected 5.5 lakh in cash from him with the false promise of allotting him a government tender for a construction business.

“The accused had called him up thrice, introducing himself as the MLA from Baranagar. He had all the details about the project. The accused assured him that in exchange of money, he can get the tender. Mahato agreed. Later, Subhojit Roy met him in Unnayan Bhavan in Salt Lake. This time, he pretended to be from the MLA’s office and said he had come just to collect the money. After collecting money, he didn’t get back to Mahato, who then filed a complaint at East police station of Salt Lake,” said police. Roy never used any name to identify himself, he only mentioned that he held the MLA’s post, said police sources.

Tracking the mobile phone through which Roy had made calls to the complainant helped the police monitored his movements and finally arrest him. They also suspect the involvement of a gang. “It can’t be the job of a single person. There are definitely a few more people involved in this. We are investigating to find out who else is involved and if he has been involved in any other cheating case,” said an official.

Roy has been arrested under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) of the IPC.